Established in 2009 Under the Authority of North Carolina General Statute 15A-404

Police Chief Kerr Putney said that the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is now working with ex-inmates to tackle violent crime in the city in the Save Our Kids program.

“So, I went to prison the first time when I was 16 years old,” Cedric Dean said.

Dean, 45, who is a Charlotte Native, has spent nearly half of his life in prison. Dean started Save Our Kids in 2012 while he was in prison.

“When I got sentenced, the judge told me that, ‘If you die and come back to life, you’ve still got five years to do,’” Dean said.

Dean is now home 22 years later.

“I had a praying mother that never gave up on me,” he said.

Dean said his work now is to help find solutions in the same community where he was a part of the problem.

“I was the person that the warden would work hand in hand with,” Dean said. “He would say, ‘You know what? Dean, right here, he is closest to the problem, so he is closest to the solution.’ And that’s what Chief Putney has subscribed to.”

Putney voiced his support for Dean’s initiative Friday night and it will be added to an existing community empowerment initiative that CMPD launched last summer.

They’ll also work with officers, educators, professionals and local churches.

It’s a chance that Dean wasn’t sure he’d ever had.

“I’m not a psychologist. I’m a ‘thugologist’ because when it comes to ‘thuggery,’ I know the cause and cure because that was me,” Dean said.

Putney also put out a call for anyone in the community who’s able to help with giving money to help fund these community programs.